Grandpa always said

I sure catch myself starting a lot of sentences with “Grandpa always said” and I think that is a great thing. I can certainly make an argument in today’s times that far too many kids grow up without the influence of their grandparents. The legacy of our family is centered around passing life experiences from one generation to the next. That will NEVER be replaced by artificial intelligence; we need more Grandparent’ wisdom in real life. I am on this thought process today because I just finished planting my 2026 potato crop.

Grandpa always told us to plant potatoes on Good Friday. I missed that day and it was Easter Sunday before I got the job done so I am already behind the 8-ball. I did learn something about Good Friday planting because, instead of just relying on family wisdom, I looked it up and learned there is also a spiritual component. It has everything to do with the movement from Darkness to Light. Jesus was crucified on Good Friday and the earth was a Dark place. On the 3rd day, He rose and brought eternal life to us all. Planting potatoes on Good Friday goes way beyond the sign of the moon and if it didn’t work well, we would not be doing it.

For the last three years, I have been just laying the potatoes on the ground and covering them with 8 inches of “enriched straw.” This year we decided to till the garden then I created a little row and covered them with maybe an inch of soil before putting my straw bed on top of that. The thing about burying them in straw is that you must be patient. It takes that green stem a good bit to pop up through all the cover, but the straw holds the moisture and assists in weed control. Once they pop through, I keep coffee grounds handy to sprinkle on the leaves for repelling bugs.

All of this is really just part of the bigger picture: life. My sense is that those of us that have been growing things our entire life often take for granted what we do. I don’t believe there is a bigger task here on earth than utilizing the resources that God has granted us to create and sustain life. Years ago, while staying at a friend’s place in Indiana, I spotted a wall hanging that said “It takes a great degree of faith to plant a seed and expect it to yield a harvest.” I couldn’t agree more. But here is the thing, it is highly likely that some seed is going to occupy every space but without your stewardship that seed may yield something that is not beneficial to mankind.

While fall and the harvest have always been my favorite time of the year, no harvest happens without spring planting. One concept I would like to continue to explore is soil health. As my friend from New Zealand said on a broadcast this week, “we need the bacteria in the soil to be communicating a big way.” That came from the discussion about whether nitrogen generated from natural gas has same effect in the soil as animal manure.

It would appear to me that nitrogen derived from natural gas does a good job of feeding the plant but may not be the best at building soil health. Understanding that world of soil biology is key to continuing to grow more without depleting the organic matter in the soil. I did not just say that nitrogen-based fertilizers are depleting soil health. What I said was that for me to get a better understanding of soil biology, I am going to spend more time studying that space.

At the end of the day, I will come back to where I started. Grandpa would have said there is nothing better than animal manure at building better soil. To that I agree but that means we need a whole lot more animals on earth, and to that I am sure my Grandpa would agree.

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